Double-walled vacuum receptacle



Jan. 24, 1939. A. A. THOMAS DOUBLE-WALLED VACUUM RECEPTACLE Filed Sept. 5, 1936 3 H 2 w H m 2 I 2 1 5 I I I M I I I F I 1 I I I I R I I I 2 b I M 2 2 1 7 U R l v I a W Patented Jan- 24, as

UNIT-ED STATES "PATENT cr mes I nouamwarsnrf vifiuu, I

Adolph A. Thomas, New York, N. Y juknor toThoAmcrican Bottle Company,

Thermos Norwich, Com, a corporation of Ohio Application September 5,1936, s rial No. 99,546

Claims- 220- My invention relates to heat-insulated receptacles, and its object is to provide a new and improved construction of double-walled vacuum bottle or like container having certain practical- 5 advantages over prior devices of that kind.

Briefly stated, my new bottle comprises a pair of spaced nested cylinders ofmetal welded together at the top by a strong glass seal; so that the inner cylinder (the container proper) is effectively heat-insulated from the outer metal cylinder, which forms at least a portion of the outer casing. This double-walled metal bottle is unbreakable, has good heat-insulating emciency, and can be made at a comparatively low fillers, which breakeasily unless the bottle is" carefully handled, and even then the glass is liable to shatter without warning due to unequal strains in the thin glass walls of the filler. 'There is also a certain amount of breakagein handlin the glass cylinders at the factory and that increases the cost of the product. These doublewalled glass fillers must be carefully mounted in an outer protective casing, usually of metal,

and that is an item of considerable expense.

As the vacuum bottle business is highly competitive, anything that increases the cost of the bottle even av little is a distinct disadvantage to the manufacturer.

It has heretofore been proposed to make vacuum bottles with double-walled fillers of metal, but such-fillers had a direct metal connection between the two nested cylinders, so that the filler consisted of a continuous heat-conducting metal wall from the inner to the outer cylinder. In other words the inner metal container was not" heat-insulated from the surrounding metal cylinder, so that the heat-insulating properties oi the bottle were greatly reduced-so much so, in fact, that it was found necessary to fill the space between the cylinders with heat-' insulating material like silica, powdered charcoal or granulated cork. To evacuate the space filled with this comminuted material. presented an additional problem and necessitated the provision of special devices to prevent the material from being sucked into the vacuum apparatus. As a result, those prior metal vacuum bottles were not only more expensive to make than the glass bottles but were less efiicient as heat-insulators.

e as It is the purpose of thisinvention to overcome rims ii and it of the cylinders.

the above and other objections and drawbacks of prior vacuum bottles by producing an allmetal double-walled bottle which has the threefold advantage of effective heat-insulation,

cheapness of manufacture, and (from the users 5 standpoint) being unbreakable even under rough or careless treatment'and therefore always safe to use. The novel features and practical advantages of my new bottlewill be clear from a description of the accompanying drawing, in

Fig. 1 represents avertical section of a metal vacuum bottle embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view showing how the glass sealing ring is positioned between the 15 nested metal cylinders for the sealing operation; and

' Fig. .3 shows a bottle in whichthe inner metal cylinder is provided with a lining, this view being fragmentary for lack of space.

, The double-walled unit of my vacuum bottle consists of an inner metal cylinder Ill and an outer metal cylinder |2,the latter inthis instance being made in two sections l2a,l2b

welded together along the wide contact area it 25 in a strong vacuum-tightjoint which makes the sections substantially integral; The upper section lia preferably ends inan oiL-set "flange ll which forms a recess for receiving the upper end of the lower section lib, so that'the welded sec- 30 tions present a smooth unbroken inner surface as if the cylinder l2 were in one piece. The only Purp se of making the outer cylinder i2 in two sections in the particular form of bottle shown is to permit insertion of the inner cylinder Ill through the open base end oi'the upper section Ila-before the lower section llbis welded in place. In wide-mouthed containers where the cylinders iili2 are straight up and down, so that the inner one can be inserted through thetop oi the'outer one. the latter may be in one piece likethe inner cylinder. These cylinders may be spun or otherwise shaped of suitable sheet metal, suchas steel, nickel, aluminum, dural'umin; and various alloys. ner cylinder it may also be'made of a low expansion alloy of iron and nickel, one form of which is knownin the trade as Invar.

- The nested-metal cylinders lfl- -l! are integrally sealed together by a glass ring IR which 50 fills the annular. space S between the adjacent The rim it of the'outer cylinder l2 'flares outwardly to provide an inner groove l.l,'and the. outer wall of rim llof cylinder II is preferably formed with I The ina.

a grooved or roughened suriace I I, which forms with groove I! an annular space of irregular cross-section and wider at the top than at the bottom. When this grooved space 8 between the nested cylinder rims l5-|8 becomes filled with the fused glass of sealing ring R, the cylinders are not only welded together but mechanically locked against axial displacement. Fig. 2 shows how simple it is to make the weld between the two cylindersz the glass ring R (cut from a long tube) is placed in the space S, the bottom edge of the ring resting on the inner shoulder i9 0! cylinder I 2. When heat is applied to the sealing ring R, as by properly arranged gas jets 20, the glass melts down into the annular space S and completely fills it, the

plastic glass adhering tothe hot metal surfaces of the cylinder rims in a strong vacuum-tight weld. It goes without saying that the nested cylinders are slowly rotated during the sealing operation for uniform heating of the glass ring and the rims i i-l6. The restricted annular opening or slot 2| formed by shoulder is at the bottom of the sealing space S prevents the plastic glass from dropping out. The width and thickness oithe sealing ring R areso chosen that the fused glass completely fills the space S, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, so that the top of the glass seal is substantially flush with the tops of so the cylinders ill-i2.

. I he glass of sealing ring R should have the same .(or about the same) coeiiicient oi expansion as the metal of cylinder-i0, so that the weld between those two parts can not loosen under any temperature changes however great or sudden. In some cases I may use-a low expansion metal of the type of Invar for the inner cylinder l0, and a low expansion glass of the type of Pyrex glass or Solex "glass for the sealing ring R, the expansion coefllcient of the mentioned materials being less than 0.000004. It is a simple matter to select a glass for ring R and a metal or alloy for cylinder II with practically the same coeiiicient of expansion. Since Pyrex glass and Solex glass (both boro-silicate glasses) are practically unaflected by changes of temperature and I or container can therefore be made thick enough (say, A of an inch for ordinary bottles) to withstand severe handling, I include within the range of my invention the idea of making the inner cylinder i. of either of said types 01 glass, which would be practically asunbreakable as metal. In the old glass fillers, made of the conventional high-expansion glass, the cylinder walls have 'to be blown breaking under sudden temperature changes, and so those fillers are necessarily very weak mechanically. According to my invention, by using a low expansion glass for cylinder I I, the latter can be made as thick as required to give itthe strength of metal without danger of cracking under sudden severe changes of temperature.

I wish to say a few words regarding a special advantage obtained by making the inner cylinder ll of Sole: glass, which is a commercial product readily procurable in the market. This glass is an iron glass with an expansion coeiiicient as low as 0.000003, and it possesses the property of absorbing. o a degree, heat radiation both in the short and lag wave portions of the There! radiant energy emanating from the hot contents or cylinder l0 can not pass through the heat-absorbing walls thereof, whereby the heat-insulating eiiiciencyortbebottleisincreasedwithoutthe auaeso 'able coating. The top rim of very thin to prevent their danger of need of silvering the outer wall of the container, as required in the prior fillers of ordinary glass. This absence oi. the need of silvering the Solex glass cylinder ill eliminates a point 0! expense. Solex glass being dark green is not clearly transparent and does not expose to view the inside 01' the metal cylinder l2.

The vitreous seal R between the rims oi. cylinders i0l2 is suillciently wide and deep to constitute a strong bond which not only supports the inner container l0 but effectively heat-insulates it from the metal of the outer cylinder It. To relieve the glass seal R of undue strains, shock-absorbing pads 22 of cork, asbestos or the like, are placed between the rounded bottom portions of the nested cylinders and preferably in pressure contact therewith. 'I'hespace 23 between the cylinders is exhausted through a-metal tube 24 attached to the bottom of cylinder l2, and it is'not necessary to 1111 this space with heat-insulating material, because the insulation of the container ill from the metal of the outer cylinder l2 the exhausting of space 23 sumciently efiective to heat-insulate the contents of the container. I

After the space 23 has been exhausted to the desired degree and the tube 24 sealed oil, the cup-shaped base member 25 is attached to the outer cylinder I! in any practical way, asby screwing, welding, brazing, or soldering the parts together along the contact surface 28, and after that the entire exterior of the bottle may be electroplated or otherwise covered with a suitbase member II preferably abuts against the lower edge of flange I l on cylinder l2, so that the base'member forms a continuation of the flange and improves the appearance of the bottle. The base member 2' will usually be made of sheet metal, but other suitable material may be used, such as a condensation product.

No separate casing'is necessary for this metal bottle, because the upper section l2a. of cylinder l2 and the base member 25 constitute an outer metal casing which fully protects the heatinsulated inner container N. If the latter is oi a metal which is not wholly neutral to foods and liquids, it may be covered with a suitable lining 21, as indicated in Fig. 3, and this lining may be an'electroplating (as of chromium, nickel. etc.) or a vitreous enamel unaiiected by the contents of the bottle. It is also possible to blow a lining of glass against the metal container II, the glass having the same expansion coeiiicient as the metal. That is to say, using the metal cylinder ID as a mold. the glass is blown against it to form the lining 21, which unites with the hot metal over its entire surface in a uniform sealing contact, so that the metal and the'glass become in eflect an integral structure. kgood combination of materials for the parts ll would be an iron-nickel alloy like Invar !or container II and Pyrex. or Solex glass (or an equivalent low expansion glass) for the lining 21.

It will be clear from the preceding description that I have provided a bottle which has a minimum oi make and ciency in heat-insulation, and is free from the breaking. While the metal cylinders ll-II are in themselves more expensive than the old glass fillers, the fact that the metal cylinders involve no breakage and require no and I1- double-walled vacuum parts cheap to easy to assemble, which em through the vitreous seal R makes bottles. This comparison also applies when the inner cylinder II is molded of a thick low-expansion glass like Pyrex, which is practically as unbreakable as metal for the purpose required.

The outer cylinder l2 and base member 25.

will usually be of sheet steel on account of its strength and cheapness, but these parts may also be made of aluminum (pure or alloyed) which is not only strong but light in weight. The inner cylinder It may consist of or be plated with nickel, which has a lower coeillcient of expansion than either steel or aluminum, and has a much lower heat conductivity than aluminum. Nickel has the further advantage of being permanent in air, easy to keep bright, and neutral to the contents of thebottle.

It is usual in bottles of this kind to provide the outer casing with screwthreads for holding a combined cap and cup, but that expedient is so well known that I have not deemed it necessary to show a cap screwed on to the breast section of the outer cylinder I2, as would be done to complete the bottle for the market.

Although I have shown and described a speciflc form and construction of bottle, I would have it understood that my invention is not limited to the details set forth, for various changes and modifications are possible within the scope oi the appended claims. I use the term bottle not in a restrictive meaning but broadly to in- I clude any practical shape of double-walled vac 'uum receptacle. It is hardly necessary toadd that the accompanying drawings were not made with'the mathematical accuracy required in shop drawings, and are to be considered merely in an illustrative sense. I have purposely exaggerated the relative dimensions of the parts for the sake of clearness.

I claim as my invention:

1. A double-walled vacuum bottle having a pair 01 spaced nested cylinders of which the outer one is metal, the'top rims 01' said cylinders being separated to provide an annular sealing space of irregular cross-section nlled with a iused glass during which rigidly welds the cylinders together outer metal cylinder, the irregular cross-section of the fused sealing ring forming means for mechanlcally locking the united cylinders against I relative axial displacement.

2. A double-walled vacuum bottle having a pair of spaced nested cylinders, the top rims 01- said cylinders being separated and shaped to .provide an annular space wider at the top than at the bottom, and a sealingring of glass filling said space and fused on opposite sides to the cylinder rims, whereby the cylinders are integrally united by a strong heat-insulating weld. therestricted bottom opening of said annular space retaining the plastic glass during the sealing operation.

3. A double-walled vacuum bottle having a pair of spaced nested cylinders, thetop rims of said cylinders being separated by an annular space, and a sealing ring of glass filling said space and fused to theoylinder rims, the opposing cylinder walls forming said anular space being provided with grooves or recesses which are filled with the fused glass of the sealing rim and thereby mechanically lock the united 0Y ders against relative axial displacement, sothat the inner cylinder is firmly supported by the glass sealing ring.

4.-A double-walled vacuum bottlehavin a pair of spaced nested cylinders, the top rims of said cylinders being separated and shaped to provide an annular space Wldeffit the top than at the bottom, and a sealing ring of glass filling said space and fused to the cylinder rims, whereby the cylinders are integrally united by a strong I heat-insulating weld, the restricted bottom opening of said annular space retaining the plastic glass during the sealing operation, the opposing cylinder walls forming said annular space being provided with grooves or recesses which are filled with fused sealing glass and thereby mechanically lock the united cylinders against relatlveaxial displacement, so that the inner cylinderis firmly supported by the glass sealing ring.

ADOLPH A. THOMAS. 

